Jess Hernandez worked full-time as an investigations analyst for Airbnb’s dangerous organizations team from May 2022 to November 2023, researching extremist networks as part of the company’s work to keep dangerous individuals off the platform. But she says she was terminated in November 2023, shortly after her team was directed by management to reinstate users who had been removed for their participation in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
“Airbnb spent much of 2023 scaling back and undermining the work of its team tasked with removing individuals affiliated with dangerous and extremist organizations from the platform,” Whistleblower Aid, the organization representing Hernandez, said in a statement. It added that by making the changes, “Airbnb privately abandoned its public commitment to its hosts’ and guests’ safety and security under this policy.”
Hernandez filed the whistleblower disclosure in May to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Trade Commission. The complaint was first reported Wednesday by NBC News. CNN has not viewed the complaint and could not independently verify the details included in the NBC News report.
I questioned whether I’d misread that bit of the article, so thanks for clarifying with a quote. Same as people who lost their jobs for joining in at J6. Your politics fueled violence. I have no sympathy. I say that as someone who will be on a list if fascists truly come to power in the USA. Mine will be for thought crimes. These are for real crimes. I’m sure there are minor nuances where I’d be willing to concede something went too far as almost all enforcement runs into grey areas from time to time, but this is far from persecuting people for the way they voted.